


yearbook

by peppersnot



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Confessions, F/M, Graduation, i feel like i got tanaka kinda ooc im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 07:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6229210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peppersnot/pseuds/peppersnot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>on her graduation, he tells her something she already knew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	yearbook

**Author's Note:**

> for rachel! it's my first time writing both these kids, so i'm sorry if i butchered their characters or something lol. AND IM SORRY FOR THE WAIT I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!! tanakiyo is super cute i am now shipping it thank you

He approached her on her graduation.

“Shimizu-san,” he said, and she raised her eyebrows at the use of her last name – when was the last time he’d called her that? But then, when was the last time he’d said anything to her with such a serious expression on his otherwise grinning face? Had he ever done that at all? She couldn’t remember.

“Shimizu-san,” he repeated, and raised a hand to scratch the back of his head. The hallways buzzed with the sound of students chattering – people getting their yearbook signed by their friends, taking pictures of the building where they’d made so many memories. She wanted to go and do the same, but here she was, and here he was, and he was taking so long in saying what she already knew.

She was good at reading people. And it wasn’t that hard to read Tanaka Ryuunosuke.

“I um, I just wanted to say that I – well,” he paused and laughed nervously. Kiyoko waited, tilting her head to the right in what she’d read in magazines was the ‘cute’ way – though really, she didn’t need to make him more nervous than he already was. Why was he so nervous anyway? He’d made his feelings pretty obvious throughout the two years he’d been in the volleyball club with her.

“Yes?”

Somewhere in the distance, she could hear Hinata yelling about how much he’d miss Suga-san and Daichi-san and Asahi-san, they were the best seniors he could have asked for. She wondered  

“I wanted to tell you, um, before you graduate, cause you know, I might never see you again, and I thought I should really just say it at this point, even though you already know and – ”

“Tanaka.”

“I! I like you, Shimizu-san!” he managed, and his face turned a bright pink as he kept his eyes fixed on the floor. “I’m sorry I’ve been pretty much a nuisance to you throughout the time you’ve been manager, and I hope you don’t hold that against me, I didn’t mean to be annoying or anything, I - ”

“Tanaka,” she interrupted, and he froze, slowly lifting his gaze to meet her eyes, and Kiyoko smiled – a smile that she couldn’t have stopped, even if she tried, because it was precious, this sight in front of her. The same Tanaka who’d taken one look at her as a fifteen year old and tripped over his own feet, who had been around the same height as her back then, and had now shot up so he was more than a head taller than her. “Relax, I’m not going to eat you.”

His face, already flushed, turned redder – something she hadn’t thought was possible, and he took in a deep breath and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I – um. I just thought I’d tell you that.”

And with that, he walked off, leaving her in a daze, holding the yearbook she’d wanted to ask him to sign for her, unsure of whether this had turned out well or not. She suspected not.

He treated her normally for the rest of the time she spent in school – still the same, hyperactive teenager who spoke poetry about her with Nishinoya, and she immediately realized no one else was supposed to know, but this time it felt different, because this time she had a blushing face to think about, a shy voice to think about, and the memory of the empty spot in her yearbook that she wanted to fill with Tanaka Ryuunosuke’s message to her. She kept forgetting to bring it and ask him to sign it.

On the first day of summer vacation, she lost her phone – and along with it, the numbers of all her friends from the volleyball club, including Tanaka Ryuunosuke.

 

* * *

 

 It was spring break when she saw him again, after almost eight months, and for a second, she didn’t recognize him. He was standing in the park, teaching a bunch of kids how to play volleyball, looking extraordinarily pleased when they called him Tanaka-sensei, hanging on to his every word. He had _hair._ Small, but it was there. Passersby looked at him adoringly – a young boy, taking care of the kids, like a good elder brother, ‘he’d be such a lovely father one day’.

Kiyoko swallowed hard, clutching her bag tighter and taking in her appearance in a shop window – she was dressed nicely, she thought. It was simple – she’d only come out to buy some groceries for her mother, but she didn’t look too _bad,_ did she?

Why was she being self conscious about this? It was just _Tanaka._

Right. Just Tanaka. She gathered up all her courage and made her way to the small circle of Tanaka-fans that listened in awe as he told them all how awesome he was.

“We were like, _this_ close to winning at nationals,” he said proudly. “And I was one of the team’s regular players.”

“That’s _incredible_ ,” a small boy said, and Kiyoko smiled, silently agreeing. “You’re so amazing, Tanaka-sensei!”

He laughed a nervous, embarrassed laugh, clearly not used to having someone so openly admire him – someone who is not Hinata Shouyou, because Hinata admires everyone – and turned his eyes away.

Which was when they fell on her, and she froze, not having expected him to see her before she had managed to collect herself. The wind blew as their eyes met - a perfect shoujo manga scene, she thought, and blinked, quickly looking at the ground, managing to raise a hand to say hi.

“Kiyoko-san?” His voice was full of disbelief, and she was hyperaware of the tiny step he took backwards, and the way his eyes widened.

“Hi,” she said, softly.

“Tanaka-sensei,” said one of the children – and Kiyoko already knew what was coming next, even before he said it, because this situation was cliché, and of course this would happen. “Is that your girlfriend?”

“What the f – I mean, _no_ , don’t be stupid, she’s a friend! A friend!” He yelled, his cheeks tinged with pink again. The boy looked at her, contemplating, and suddenly, she was self conscious.

“She’s pretty, though.”

“Yes, I know she’s pretty, get lost! Go play, I already taught you everything!” Tanaka shooed the kids off, and they left, complaining and giggling amongst themselves. He shrugged when they were gone. “Sorry, they’re – you know. Kids being kids.”

Kiyoko nodded, and in a sudden surge of bravery, gesturing at a nearby bench. “Shall we sit?”

He swallowed visibly, before nodding, and followed her, sitting down at a notable distance. “You look nice.”

“Thanks.”

An awkward silence settled – and she was reminded of another scene where she’d had one of these, with the same person. In the middle of a hallway she hadn’t seen in ages, wearing a uniform she’d long since thrown out, in front of the boy who was sitting next to her right now, mulling over feelings she’d only recently come to terms with.

“Everyone misses you,” he told her. “Especially Hinata and Noya. And Yachi-san. Everyone, actually. Even Tsukishima, that asshole.”

Kiyoko smoothed out her skirt, fiddling with her hair, feeling her cheeks starting to heat up. “And..you?”

Tanaka blinked, swallowed, looked at the sky, and then at his feet. “Yeah, me too.”

“I…I miss you guys too.”

He was good at keeping a conversation going – or maybe he’d picked up on the awkward atmosphere because he suddenly stood up and laughed, telling her about the disaster Hinata had caused the week before, and she wasn’t really listening, just watching him as he spoke, remembering the two years she’d spent with him, the yearbook she’d forgotten to ask him to sign – the number she didn’t have.

“Tanaka,” she said, standing up and he looked over at her, smiling. “Can – can I get your number?”

He blinked once, twice, three times and then flushed. “Oh, y-yeah, of course. I was going to ask you for yours too, just now.”

Kiyoko smiled, taking out her phone, punching in the digits as he dictated them out to her. She sent him a text, with her name and a small smiley face, and watched as he fed hers into his contacts.

“I have to go,” she said, and he nodded.

“It was good to see you again!”

“Yeah. I – I’ll text you.”

“Y-yeah, okay.”

She gave him a smile, and made her way to the street, heart thudding wildly against her ribs, and her smile slowly spreading wider and wider.

**Author's Note:**

> candylit.tumblr.com


End file.
